I’ve been an advocate of database development and maintenance for a long time, but when I tested mine with co-hosting Sydney Business Month, I was reminded of crucial elements.
Here are five core databse aspects I found essential recently:
Check your segmentation
Are there gaps in your segmentation? Have people been coded correctly and is the segmentation relevant, or does it need a rethink? Is it time to make over the segmentation?
A good segmentation is excellent for finding out how many people in your existing database could be suitable for a new product or service and to then let them know you’ve developed it, but only if the segmentation is accurate. Much of the awareness raising for Sydney Business Month was with our own networks, but we wanted personal communication to only go to people who might be interested. We needed to be letting small business owners in Sydney know about it. Not those who’ve closed their business and are now employed, not those who’ve moved away from Sydney.
Do you still know each other?
Do you have contacts entered in your database that you've not connected with since they were added? Time to decide if they should be contacted or deleted. You need to be confident they’re people you know and they know you, especially if you're planning to do a survey or develop a strategy based on the contacts.
If you go to a networking event, then add them to your database, but don’t follow up or enter how you met them, then it is very difficult to follow up later. Also, the response rate to a survey is increased when there is better engagement.
Current and accurate
Are the contact details up to date? If business owners have closed or sold their business or the person has changed jobs, then their relationship with you will be different. If they've moved, location based analysis and strategy developed related to that won't be accurate.
Connected in other places
Find those contacts on LinkedIn and Twitter. Locate the business on Facebook. Connecting with contacts in those places will allow you to improve your relationship with them and how you could help each other. If you see many of them are part of a group, you could also join and participate.
Databases locally are important but interconnecting them with social media adds much more depth to what you have.
Explore ways new ways you can connect
Once you've segmented your contacts, communicated with them, know they're current and accurate, and connected in other places, you can think laterally about new ways to connect with them.
Is there a way you can touch base with them that is unexpected, new, special, not sales focused?
Sydney Business Month was an excellent reason for me to reconnect with people I’d lost touch with and I found people who’d moved, changed roles, and focus of their business.
Napoleon Perdis: The Man — Napoleon Perdis is a renowned, award winning, international makeup artist with over 20 years experience in the industry. Napoleon remains one of the few makeup artist developed brands who still owns, operates and actively works in the industry. With strong and strategic presence in both the Australian and US markets, Napoleon Perdis is the KEY Australian beauty brand currently available in renowned luxury US retailer, Nordstrom. A key element of the Napoleon Perdis brand and person is that of educator. He pioneered and democratised makeup artistry education, and since the creation of the Napoleon Perdis Makeup Academy over 20 years ago, he has trained over 25,000 students in Australia and the US.
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Napoleon Perdis: The Brand
Passionate about supporting the Australian fashion industry, Napoleon and his team remain runway fit as he continues to lead the largest, most experienced team of makeup artists each season at fashion week. Extending beyond fashion, Napoleon's support and passion for the arts has been realised through his sponsorships of The Australian Ballet as well as the AACTA's, Astra Awards, Sydney Film Festival.
Napoleon Perdis: The Brand Builder
In 2008, and one of the first international makeup artists to be involved in the Designers for Target program in the US, Napoleon Perdis created NP Set, a colour cosmetic offering for the masstige market.
NP Set launched soon after in Australia where the easy-to-use, multi-purpose products at very accessible price points were fast a winner with the savvy Australian consumer. In April 2012, Napoleon took the NP Set brand (and his famed expertise and knowledge) to the television screens of up to 7 million Australians via TVSN. With the identification of the evolution of omni-channel retail combined with his experience on the US powerhouse home shopping network, QVC, home shopping networks were a natural next step for the brand and the man. In May 2012 Napoleon opened his first Napoleon Perdis Life.style store in Sydney's Woollahra, restoring the iconic Post Office. Representing the next visionary step of the Napoleon Perdis brand, Life.Style was borne out of Napoleon's passion for art, fashion, design and all things beautiful. Housing an eclectic mix of international men's and women's accessories, jewellery, art and homewares that sit beside the Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics range as well as a carefully curated selection of vintage items.
Napoleon Perdis: The Innovator
The Napoleon Perdis cosmetic range is innovative, award-winning, and wearable. His lauded Auto Pilot Pre-Foundation Primer has been prepping and perfecting complexions for over 10 years. While Napoleon was not the first to ride the mineral makeup trend, he patiently waited until he was most satisfied with the innovation level and formulation before offering mineral makeup to his customer. The introduction of two Mattifying Lip Palettes to the lip stable have been acknowledged as industry changers by Shop Til You Drop magazine, who recently awarded the Double Agent Nude a 'Shop Genius Award'. The brand's latest skinnovation comes in the form of The One. A one shade wonder concealer and a sales success story! Sometimes an upgrade is as important as innovation. In the past 12 months, the brand has continued to see the upgrade of many of its original and core products to new luxe gold packaging. For NP Set, the multi-use products are as innovative as they are environmentally friendly. Ingredients are key to the NP Set range which boast the latest and greatest ingredients with organic benefits, are 98% paraben free, in recyclable packaging.
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